Roadway guard rail barrier



June 19, 1962 G. DARONCO ROADWAY GUARD RAIL BARRIER 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 30, 1959 INVENTOR. Guam/14o 0 14/ea/vca BY June 19, 1962 G. DARONCO 3,039,743

ROADWAY GUARD RAIL BARRIER Filed March 50, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. G/EOL A M0 D flea/v00 BY JMMW Arr-Y.

June 19, 1962 s. DARONCO 3,039,743

ROADWAY GUARD RAIL BARRIER Filed March 30, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VEN TOR. G/eammo D MAMA/co United States Patent 3,039,743 ROADWAY GUARD RAIL BARRIER Girolamo DAronco, Via Duodo No. 34, Udine, Italy Filed Mar. 30, 1959, Ser. No. 802,999 Claims priority, application Italy Mar. 30, 1958 8 Claims. (Cl. 25613.1)

The present invention relates to a roadway guard rail barrier which consists of pre-cast reinforced concrete members, comprising elongated bodies and posts having at least one bracket mounted thereon.

Said elongated bodies, which will be hereinafter referred to as barrier members, may be of at least three difierent configurations. A first configuration includes elongated bodies having a constant cross area, said first bodies being used for the straightway sections of the guard rail barrier. A second configuration of bodies have the cross area increasing from the ends of each body toward the center, while the third configuration includes elongated bodies, the cross area of which increases from the center toward the ends. The barrier members of the second and third configurations will be used for the concave and convex sections respectively of curve guard rail barriers. The guard rail barrier of a roadway curve section is thus formed by at least one polygonal or substantially polygonal curb having a number of sides at least twice higher than the number of the barrier members which has been assembled for obtaining said curb. More than a curb may be provided for dangerous sections of the road.

The invention further provides posts supporting at least one bracket, adapted to permit one to easily and safely interlock the adjacent barrier members. For this purpose in each bracket a supporting surface is provided so formed as to partially house the ends of two adjacent barrier members of said guard rail barrier curb. Said supporting surface comprises a device for anchoring the ends of the steel embedded bars of the precast concrete members, said ends projecting for this purpose out of the ends of said barrier members.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide means for fixing said posts to the road surface. Said guard rail barrier when connected to the highway pavement or ground therebeneath will be able to operate in conjunction with the pavement so as to utilize the mass of the highway pavement in opposition to a vehicles lateral component of force in collision with the barrier.

The barrier members, the posts and their brackets may be cast in a building yard and then transported to the place in which they have to be mounted, no special contractors equipment being required on account of the fact that all the elements which will form the barrier are pre-cast in their definite form.

The guard rail barrier, which is the object of the present invention, may be easily disassembled by substituting the damaged members or by recovering their reinforcing elements so as to use them again for an other installation. For this purpose it will be sufiicient to remove the mortar which seals the junction area within the supporting surface in the brackets so as to disconnect the ends of the steel bars of the reinforced concrete elongated bodies from their anchoring device.

The present invention provides side roadway guard rail barriers as well as center roadway guard rail barriers. Said barriers support the impact stresses produced by a collision against them, distribute said stresses ove a fairly long length of the barrier and transform a part of said stresses into a lateral component which keeps the vehicle in its proper lane.

Roadway guard rail barriers of different types for preventing accidents caused by fast road trafiic, more par- 3,039,743 Patented June 19, 1962 ticularly in curves, are well known. They generally consist of monolithic units, which are constructed in place, or of units comprising pro-fabricated metallic members, which are generally very expensive and which cannot always be adapted to installations of every type.

It is well known that rein-forced concrete is weatherproof and is therefore very adaptable for external installations. Till now the use of reinforced concrete for roadway guard rail barriers was considered difficult on account of the fact that no sufliciently light members of barriers are known so as to be able to manufacture them in a building yard and transport them afterwards to a specific place on the roadway. Moreover said members would have to be able to be used for curves having very difi'erent radius of curvature, that is-to-say for curves having 15 m. radius and more.

A further reason which has limited the utilisation of reinforced concrete is that fact that it is well known that reinforced concrete has little resiliency to a head-on collision. But tests have proved that head-on collisions against roadway guard rail barriers are exceptional and generally end in climbing of the barrier.

Side-swipe collisions are on the contrary more frequent. For preventing damages from side-swipe collisions the following conditions have to be satisfied:

1) Provide a guard rail barrier without projections or irregularities which could impede the forward motion of a vehicle colliding with it.

(2) The posts supporting the elongated bodies forming the curb must be duly set back with regard to the front surface of said curb.

The invention provides a guard rail barrier which constitutes, when assembled, a monolithic unit which resiliently absorbs the lateral component of the impact stresses of a vehicle in collision with the barrier, and operates in conjunction with the supporting posts and with barrier members which are placed in the area of the collision. Said barrier members may be shaped as round or polygonal bodies or the like.

The following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings discloses the invention more clearly.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a post, bracket and the adjacent ends of two barrier members.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the post and bracket with parts omitted.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4 to 7 are perspective views drawn to a reduced scale of some forms of barrier members for external side barrier of roadway curves.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are perspective views drawn to a reduced scale illustrating the modification for internal side guard rail barriers of roadway curves.

FIG. 10 is an elevational view drawn to a reduced scale of a guard rail barrier for the external side of a roadway curve.

FIG. 11 is a top view drawn to a reduced scale of a roadway section having side guard rail barriers.

The elements of the longitudinal curbs which are a part of the guard rail barrier, are constituted by elongated bodies, which may be grouped in three sets. The first set comprises barrier members having a constant cross area,

these members being used for straightaway sections of the a said guard rail barrier, and are marked with 1 in FIGS.

lO-ll, not being particularly illustrated as they do not have any particular feature.

spondence with their centre and the maximum cross area at their ends; these members are used for guard rail barriers placed on the external side of roadway curves; the

second set comprises members having the maximum cross areain correspondence with their centre and the smallest cross area at their ends; these members are used for guard rail barriers which are installed along the internal side of roadway curves.

The barrier members of FIGS. 4 to 6, 8 and 9 have lateral round surfaces.

The barrier members 2 of FIG. 4 and 2a of FIG. 8 have surfaces shaped as two truncated cones having the smaller and respectively the larger bases in common.

Referring to the modification of FIG. 5, each barrier member is intended to form three consecutive sides of a guard rail barrier curb on account of the fact that it comprises a central cylindrical intermediate part 3 between two truncated cone-shaped ends 3a.

Referring to the modifications shown in FIGS. 6 and 9, the surfaces of the members 4 and respectively 4a of the guard rail barrier are continuous and their axial sections have respectively a convex and respectively a concave shape.

Member 5 of the guard rail barrier illustrated in FIG. 7 is constituted by a prism-shaped body, its cross section being polygonal and more particularly rectangular. The members 1 to 5 which will form the curb of the guard rail barrier according to the present invention are made with reinforced concrete, the steel bars 6 embedded therein projecting from the ends of said members so that they form hooks 6a to be anchored on the posts and interlocked along with the hooks of the adjacent member within bracket 8.

The posts 7 have a round cross section, but they can be also polygonal in cross section; Each post 7 has connected therein at least one bracket 8. The number of brackets which are connected with each post bears a relation to number of curbs to be provided in a guard rail barrier.

The bracket S'is eccentric with regard to the axis of post 7; a supporting surface 9 is provided in the projecting part of the bracket. Supporting surface 9 is suited to partially house the adjacent ends of two consecutive members of the guard rail barrier, a part of the ends thus projecting from said bracket 8 so that posts 7 never come into contact with the vehicle which collides with the guard rail barrier. The impact stresses are therefore directly distributed only over the guard curb which is so shaped as to guide the vehicle into a better deflection angle than the original approach angle towards its proper lane.

The post 7 may project partially into the supporting surface 9 so that the ends of the barrier members will be in abutting relation therewith when they are connected one with the other within supporting surface 9. In supporting surface 9 there is provided an anchoring device to which the hooks 6a are locked which consists of a pin inserted in coaxial slots 11 formed in the projecting flanges 8a of said bracket 8. Said pin 10 has an enlarged head 10a and may be moved downwardly in the slots 11 so as to be easily removed.

For a guard rail barrier having only one curb, one post 7 more is needed than the number of barrier members used to form the guard rail barrier.

The ends of two adjacent barrier members, shaped for instance as members 4, are anchored to the bracket of each post 7, by inserting pin 10 downwards into the projecting bent ends forming hooks 6a of the steel bars 6. The joint area is then sealed by a sealing means 12, such as cement which will fill up the interstices between the end of members 4 and the supporting surface 9. The outside surface of the joint area must be smoothly finished.

Posts 7 may have a point 7a (FIG. 10) so as to be more easily driven into the ground; they may also have a foundation bracket 7b (FIG. 2) having holes 13 for housing bolts provided to be jam-locked to co-operating slabs or plates secured to the roadway pavement. This latter system may be used when the barrier has to be placed on stiif structures as for instance stone pavements, metallic bridges or the like.

Pins 10 may also be provided with resilient supporting means so as to provide a resilient anchoring system for the guard rail barrier members as they are mounted to the posts 7; one or more brackets 9 may be supported by each post 7 if the guard rail barrier has one or more guard curbs.

Posts 7 may be also sufficiently high so as to support a guard handrail 14 (FIG. 10). In this case the guard rail barrier curbs will be placed near the bottom of the posts 7 and the guard handrail 14 at the right height required by its function.

FIG. 11 is a top plan view of a straightway section and of a curve section of a roadway on which is placed a guardrail barrier in correspondence of the inside and of the outside of the roadway.

What I claim is:

1. A roadway guard rail barrier comprising at least two posts, each post having a bracket mounted thereon, each bracket having top and bottom laterally offset portions forming a supporting surface for an anchoring pin, a barrier member having at least one hook member in each of its ends, each hook member engaging one of said anchoring pins, said barrier member having a lateral surface facing a roadway, said lateral surface being substantially equidistant along its. length from the center of said roadway.

2. A roadway guard rail barrier according to claim 1 in which said barrier member has a constant cross area. 3. A roadway guard rail barrier according to claim 1 in'which said barrier member has a cross area which increases from the center thereof toward its ends in a concave manner.

4. A roadway guard rail barrier according to claim 1 in which said barrier member has a cross area which increases from the ends. thereof toward its center in a convex manner.

5. A roadway guard rail barrier comprising at least two elongated barrier members having center and end portions, hook members projecting from the ends of said barrier members, at least three post members having at least one bracket mounted on each post member to support said barrier members, said bracket being eccentrically mounted on each post member and provided with a supporting surface adapted to partially house and support the ends of two adjacent elongated barrier members so that each post member is set back with regard to the barrier formed by the associated elongated barrier members to provide a substantially smooth and continuous surface exterior of said bracket, and a removable anchoring pin arranged in said supporting surface to anchor the projecting hook members thereon.

6. A roadway guard rail barrier according to claim 5 in which at least one of said barrier members has a constant cross area.

7. A roadway guard rail barrier according'to claim 5 in which at least one of said barrier members has a cross area which increases from the'center thereof toward its ends in a concave manner.

8. A roadway guard rail barrier according to claim 5 in which at least one of said barrier members has a cross area which increases from the endsthereoftoward its center in a convex manner.

McFall July 9, 1907 Buente Nov. 30, 1915 

